We propose a globally convergent numerical method, called the convexification, to numerically compute the viscosity solution to first-order Hamilton-Jacobi equations through the vanishing viscosity process where the viscosity parameter is a fixed small number. By convexification, we mean that we employ a suitable Carleman weight function to convexify the cost functional defined directly from the form of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation under consideration. The strict convexity of this functional is rigorously proved using a new Carleman estimate. We also prove that the unique minimizer of the this strictly convex functional can be reached by the gradient descent method. Moreover, we show that the minimizer well approximates the viscosity solution of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation as the noise contained in the boundary data tends to zero. Some interesting numerical illustrations are presented.
Shrinkage estimates of small domain parameters typically utilize a combination of a noisy "direct" estimate that only uses data from a specific small domain and a more stable regression estimate. When the regression model is misspecified, estimation performance for the noisier domains can suffer due to substantial shrinkage towards a poorly estimated regression surface. In this paper, we introduce a new class of robust, empirically-driven regression weights that target estimation of the small domain means under potential misspecification of the global regression model. Our regression weights are a convex combination of the model-based weights associated with the best linear unbiased predictor (BLUP) and those associated with the observed best predictor (OBP). The compromise parameter in this convex combination is found by minimizing a novel, unbiased estimate of the mean-squared prediction error for the small domain means, and we label the associated small domain estimates the "compromise best predictor", or CBP. Using a data-adaptive mixture for the regression weights enables the CBP to possess the robustness of the OBP while retaining the main advantages of the EBLUP whenever the regression model is correct. We demonstrate the use of the CBP in an application estimating gait speed in older adults.
Approximate Bayesian inference methods provide a powerful suite of tools for finding approximations to intractable posterior distributions. However, machine learning applications typically involve selecting actions, which -- in a Bayesian setting -- depend on the posterior distribution only via its contribution to expected utility. A growing body of work on loss-calibrated approximate inference methods has therefore sought to develop posterior approximations sensitive to the influence of the utility function. Here we introduce loss-calibrated expectation propagation (Loss-EP), a loss-calibrated variant of expectation propagation. This method resembles standard EP with an additional factor that "tilts" the posterior towards higher-utility decisions. We show applications to Gaussian process classification under binary utility functions with asymmetric penalties on False Negative and False Positive errors, and show how this asymmetry can have dramatic consequences on what information is "useful" to capture in an approximation.
Tensor optimization is crucial to massive machine learning and signal processing tasks. In this paper, we consider tensor optimization with a convex and well-conditioned objective function and reformulate it into a nonconvex optimization using the Burer-Monteiro type parameterization. We analyze the local convergence of applying vanilla gradient descent to the factored formulation and establish a local regularity condition under mild assumptions. We also provide a linear convergence analysis of the gradient descent algorithm started in a neighborhood of the true tensor factors. Complementary to the local analysis, this work also characterizes the global geometry of the best rank-one tensor approximation problem and demonstrates that for orthogonally decomposable tensors the problem has no spurious local minima and all saddle points are strict except for the one at zero which is a third-order saddle point.
This paper is concerned with the efficient spectral solutions for weakly singular nonlocal diffusion equations with Dirichlet-type volume constraints. This type of equation contains an integral operator which typically has a singularity at the midpoint of the integral domain, and the approximation of such the integral operator is one of the essential difficulties in solving the nonlocal equations. To overcome this problem, two-sided Jacobi spectral quadrature rules are proposed to develop a Jacobi spectral collocation method for the nonlocal diffusion equations. Rigorous convergence analysis of the proposed method is presented in $L^\infty$ norms, and we further prove that the Jacobi collocation solution converges to its corresponding local limit as nonlocal interactions vanish. Numerical examples are given to verify the theoretical results.
We study the convergences of several FFT-based schemes that are widely applied in computational homogenization for deriving effective coefficients, and the term "convergence" here means the limiting behaviors as spatial resolutions going to infinity. Those schemes include Moulinec-Suquent's scheme [Comput Method Appl M, 157 (1998), pp. 69-94], Willot's scheme [Comptes Rendus M\'{e}canique, 343 (2015), pp. 232-245], and the FEM scheme [Int J Numer Meth Eng, 109 (2017), pp. 1461-1489]. Under some reasonable assumptions, we prove that the effective coefficients obtained by those schemes are all convergent to the theoretical ones. Moreover, for the FEM scheme, we can present several convergence rate estimates under additional regularity assumptions.
We study the extent to which it is possible to approximate the optimal value of a Unique Games instance in Fixed-Point Logic with Counting (FPC). We prove two new FPC-inexpressibility results for Unique Games: the existence of a (1/2, 1/3 + $\delta$)-inapproximability gap, and inapproximability to within any constant factor. Previous recent work has established similar FPC-inapproximability results for a small handful of other problems. Our construction builds upon some of these ideas, but contains a novel technique. While most FPC-inexpressibility results are based on variants of the CFI-construction, ours is significantly different.
The aim of this paper is to study the recovery of a spatially dependent potential in a (sub)diffusion equation from overposed final time data. We construct a monotone operator one of whose fixed points is the unknown potential. The uniqueness of the identification is theoretically verified by using the monotonicity of the operator and a fixed point argument. Moreover, we show a conditional stability in Hilbert spaces under some suitable conditions on the problem data. Next, a completely discrete scheme is developed, by using Galerkin finite element method in space and finite difference method in time, and then a fixed point iteration is applied to reconstruct the potential. We prove the linear convergence of the iterative algorithm by the contraction mapping theorem, and present a thorough error analysis for the reconstructed potential. Our derived \textsl{a priori} error estimate provides a guideline to choose discretization parameters according to the noise level. The analysis relies heavily on some suitable nonstandard error estimates for the direct problem as well as the aforementioned conditional stability. Numerical experiments are provided to illustrate and complement our theoretical analysis.
The covariance structure of multivariate functional data can be highly complex, especially if the multivariate dimension is large, making extensions of statistical methods for standard multivariate data to the functional data setting challenging. For example, Gaussian graphical models have recently been extended to the setting of multivariate functional data by applying multivariate methods to the coefficients of truncated basis expansions. However, a key difficulty compared to multivariate data is that the covariance operator is compact, and thus not invertible. The methodology in this paper addresses the general problem of covariance modeling for multivariate functional data, and functional Gaussian graphical models in particular. As a first step, a new notion of separability for the covariance operator of multivariate functional data is proposed, termed partial separability, leading to a novel Karhunen-Lo\`eve-type expansion for such data. Next, the partial separability structure is shown to be particularly useful in order to provide a well-defined functional Gaussian graphical model that can be identified with a sequence of finite-dimensional graphical models, each of identical fixed dimension. This motivates a simple and efficient estimation procedure through application of the joint graphical lasso. Empirical performance of the method for graphical model estimation is assessed through simulation and analysis of functional brain connectivity during a motor task. %Empirical performance of the method for graphical model estimation is assessed through simulation and analysis of functional brain connectivity during a motor task.
We investigate the quality of space approximation of a class of stochastic integral equations of convolution type with Gaussian noise. Such equations arise, for example, when considering mild solutions of stochastic fractional order partial differential equations but also when considering mild solutions of classical stochastic partial differential equations. The key requirement for the equations is a smoothing property of the deterministic evolution operator which is typical in parabolic type problems. We show that if one has access to nonsmooth data estimates for the deterministic error operator together with its derivative of a space discretization procedure, then one obtains error estimates in pathwise H\"older norms with rates that can be read off the deterministic error rates. We illustrate the main result by considering a class of stochastic fractional order partial differential equations and space approximations performed by spectral Galerkin methods and finite elements. We also improve an existing result on the stochastic heat equation.
The simulation of long, nonlinear dispersive waves in bounded domains usually requires the use of slip-wall boundary conditions. Boussinesq systems appearing in the literature are generally not well-posed when such boundary conditions are imposed, or if they are well-posed it is very cumbersome to implement the boundary conditions in numerical approximations. In the present paper a new Boussinesq system is proposed for the study of long waves of small amplitude in a basin when slip-wall boundary conditions are required. The new system is derived using asymptotic techniques under the assumption of small bathymetric variations, and a mathematical proof of well-posedness for the new system is developed. The new system is also solved numerically using a Galerkin finite-element method, where the boundary conditions are imposed with the help of Nitsche's method. Convergence of the numerical method is analyzed, and precise error estimates are provided. The method is then implemented, and the convergence is verified using numerical experiments. Numerical simulations for solitary waves shoaling on a plane slope are also presented. The results are compared to experimental data, and excellent agreement is found.